CKI completes multi-cultural families’ teenagers support program

SEOUL--(Korea Newswire)--Citibank Korea (http://www.citibank.co.kr) and JA Korea (www.jakorea.org) held a presentation session on “Citi-JA Hero Program” at the auditorium, 20th fl., Citibank Korea HQ Bldg. on June 27, 2012. Some 150 people including teenagers from multi-cultural families, college students who volunteered as mentors, and CKI executives and employees attended the session to share the success stories of the program which was designed to help and inspire students from multi-cultural households.

At the session, progress of the program was updated and best mentor and mentee were awarded. Best practices were presented, and a special performance by students from multi-cultural family choir followed. Eun-Mi Sohn, 3rd grader of Jeungsan Middle School, told the audience that her grade was poor and she used to be very passive, but in the course of the program, her grade went up to the 7th in the class and she gained confidence accordingly. Seung-Woo Paek, 1st grader of Daeil Foreign Language High School, said that he could make it to his current high school thanks to his mentor, who majored Russian in the same high school and is currently studying Russian Language and Literature at Yonsei University. As a student who has Russian mother, Seung-Woo said that he would like to study the same major at the same university as his mentor, and become a diplomat. The audience was touched by their stories and gave them a big applause.

CEO Ha said in his congratulatory remarks, “Citi’s corporate culture respects diversity of background and values. That is why we are committed to supporting students from multi-cultural families.” He added, “We hope that more and more children from multicultural households can benefit from this program and grow into leaders of our society.”

Citi-JA Hero Program, started in July 2011, is sponsored by the Citi Foundation, and is run jointly by Citibank Korea and JA Korea. It aims to help the children from multi-cultural families by providing tutoring support and diverse cultural experiences and mentoring, so that they can come up with their challenges and get motivation to study hard to be able to realize their dreams. Those teenager participants were paired with CKI executives and employees to join cultural activities together once a month, and were twinned with college student volunteers to get tutoring and counseling on school life every week. Throughout the year, 110 students participated in a total of 5,600 hours of program for nurturing their personality and improving school grade.

Website: http://www.citibank.co.kr

This is a news release distributed by Korea Newswire on behalf of this company.